Yukon mushroom boom brings business benefits

Ashley Russell prepares bannock to sell in a canteen she runs with a group of moms, who also take turns looking after the kids and picking morels. 'We’re making lots of money,' she says. (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC)

Related Stories

As the mushroom boom continues in the Yukon's Carmacks area, it’s not just the hundreds of morel pickers who are making money.

At a camp along the Robert Campbell Highway, Ashley Russell and some other moms run a canteen where they sell bannock, coffee and stew.

“Half of us go across to pick, half of us stay in camp and sell hot food and cook all day and we split the proceeds in the end,” Russell says. “And the kids all hang out with whatever camp mom is on duty that day.”

Marty Courchesen works at the Tatchun Centre General Store in Carmacks where it gets busier and busier every day. (Cheryl Kawaja/CBC)

Russell says the sales are pretty good.

“We’re making lots of money.”

It’s the same story at the Tatchun Centre General Store in Carmacks, pop. 503, where it gets busier every day.